Not to mention, Burshtein explains that many fast fashion corporations like Zara “rarely restock items—even if they’re bestsellers—luring shoppers in to see what’s new” (Burshtein 2). Many consumers are hooked by the constant introduction of new textiles. Manipulating the consumer to always come back for more is a strategy—one would say—that fast fashion corporations use. Looking for the source of this vicious cycle would require one to take another look at the domino effect created by the fast fashion phenomenon. According to the journalist Elizabeth L. Cline, author of Overdressed, mentions that the fast fashion phenomenon can be sourced back to the “1990s—an era considered to be the turning point for the US textile industry when about fifty percent of textiles were made in the US.”(Ethical Fashion 2). These drastic changes that occurred in a short amount of time lead other corporations to take notice of the phenomenon. Ultimately, leading to the domino effect in which one-by-one corporations switch over to the fast fashion methods. Thus creating an industry in which consumers are influenced to appreciate quantity over …show more content…
The fast fashion industry has been able to manipulate the consumer’s mind. They tell the shopper that they cannot waste another minute sitting on their couch and must go shop until they drop. They tell the consumer that if they don’t buy this—red blouse laced with black pearls, soft like silk to the touch—the price will go up. It happens to work. When Cline was interviewed by NPR Jerry Gross, she mentions that her shopping habit is very similar to many American consumers: “I was this sort of quintessential American consumer...by shopping cheap, shopping on impulse or picking something up on the weekend has become a typical American pastime” (Ethical Fashion pg1). If consumers have money they have the time to buy. More often than not, buying cheap fashionable clothes can encourage the consumer to keep on buying. Since the 1960s many things have changed within the US textile industry. The fast fashion industry has been slowly but surely incrementing their influence on the consumer. Indeed, consumers have been shifting their appreciation from quality to quantity. Cline mentions that “retailers know they can’t make a profit by putting a high markup on clothes anymore; they have to sell them for as cheaply as possible and sell them based on volume” (Ethical Fashion pg2). The societal shift from quality over quantity has been